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SCMP Reporter

PETER'S FRIENDS (1992, Entertainment in Video, 98 minutes)  DUBBED by some critics as the Diner of the '90s, Peter's Friends is about a group of college friends spending a weekend together for the first time since they graduated 10 years earlier.

  British comedian Stephen Fry plays the title role, inviting his friends to spend a New Year weekend with him in his manor house. Among his guests is Kenneth Branagh who plays Fry's best friend who went to America to pursue a film career, and Emma Thompson who plays an introverted woman in search of the love of her life.

  Produced and directed by Branagh and with a soundtrack packed with goodies from the '80s, Peter's Friends begs comparisons with Diner, but is a totally different animal, dealing with different issues.

  The cast does not disappoint and turns in a memorable performance.

  SISTER ACT (1992, Touchstone Video, 97 minutes)  THE low budget sleeper hit from last year, Sister Act is a case of perfect casting.

  Whoopi Goldberg plays a showgirl forced into hiding after witnessing a mob killing. The perfect location to lie low until the trial turns out to be a convent.

  As can be expected from any Touchstone production, Sister Act is more or less the average formulaic film produced by the Disney empire: in this case, a relatively entertaining but restrained role for Goldberg, backed up by a well put together soundtrack,with the almost mandatory farcical chase and the happy ending.

  VAGRANT (1993, Fox Video, 87 minutes)  VAGRANT is a made-for-television variation of the standard stalk-and-slash movie, but with a twist.

  Bill Paxton plays a yuppie who buys a house in preparation for his planned wedding. Unbeknown to him, his dream home has already been staked out by a psycho vagrant.

  Instead of pursuing Paxton with the intention of killing him, the vagrant proceeds to kill everybody in the area and frames Paxton for an assortment of gruesome murders.

  Like most television films, Vagrant assumes the audience has minimal intelligence and infinite patience. - Reviewed by FRANKLIN SCHUBERT 



Friends dine out in the country